Defense denies Yates' killings fit aggravated definition

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, September 12, 2002

TACOMA -- Attorneys for confessed serial killer Robert Lee Yates rested their case yesterday, contending that prosecutors had failed to show that two Tacoma slayings meet the state definition of "aggravated" murder, the only crime to carry the death penalty in Washington state.

Closing arguments will be presented Monday in Pierce County Superior Court, followed by jury deliberations.

If Yates is convicted of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Mercer and Connie LaFontaine Ellis, the trial will move into a penalty phase. During a penalty phase, jurors would decide between the death penalty or life imprisonment, the only other punishment for aggravated first-degree murder.

"What has the state really shown?" Hunko asked. "There's no proof of anything other than Mr. Yates killed them."

McCarthy denied the motion, ruling that there was enough evidence for jurors to decide the question.

Prosecutors contend the slayings involve two "aggravating" factors -- they were committed to cover up other crimes, robbery and patronizing prostitutes; and two or more people died as a result of a common scheme or plan.

Defense attorneys contend there is no evidence of robbery and that Yates was open about his use of prostitutes.

They deny there was a common scheme or plan.

In presenting their brief case, defense lawyers called four women who worked as prostitutes in Spokane during the late 1990s and were not slain by Yates.

The women characterized the 50-year-old father of five as a "good date" who paid well and did not request kinky sex. He paid up front and wore a condom, they said.

One of the women, Deborah Magee, defended Yates under cross-examination, denying several statements that she made shortly after his arrest -- including that he talked about drugs with her and that she "felt a certain degree of anger" from him.

"I never said that," Magee said. "He was always a gentleman."

Prosecutors called Spokane County Sheriff's Detective David Bentley to the stand as a rebuttal witness after the defense rested.

Another woman, former prostitute Danielle Gorder, said during cross-examination Wednesday that she called police soon after Yates' arrest when she saw him on television and recognized him as a man who had paid her for sex several times in 1999.

She said she was crying when she asked detectives why Yates hadn't killed her.

But she also testified that she told police Yates' face was "like a mask at times . . . with nothing behind it."